In line with its plans to set up greenfield projects outside India, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance group is considering setting up a polypropylene unit in Kuwait. The company already has operations in the Gulf states to market polypropylene. If this project fructifies, it will be Reliance's first unit outside India. Reliance Industries (RIL) is also looking to set up a refinery project in Kuwait. It has also signed an MoU with GAIL to explore for petrochemical plants outside India.
The company is, currently, testing its products along with BSNL for commercially rolling them out in India. The company plans to launch its products for one million BSNL lines in Ahmedabad and Bangalore in two months. Renovau has developed a product suite where video images can travel over internet on a bandwidth of as low as 128 kbps. The switch, developed by the company, will offer call routing, call management and billing solutions.
"We require eight million cubic metres for overall expansion which is almost half the gas available at Panna-Mukta-Tapi. At present, for the 655 mw, we are using three million cubic metres a day," said Rajiv Mishra, managing director of CLP Power India, which is a 100 per cent subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based CLP Group. The company had received the required environment clearance from the Gujarat Pollution Control Board in 2007.
The annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy, which will be released on Friday by Commerce Minister Kamal Nath, is likely to announce a host of measures for exporters to help them tackle the appreciation in rupee against the dollar as well as to achieve an export target of $200 billion for 2008-09. Significantly, this is the last year of the Foreign Trade Policy, which was introduced after the UPA government came into power in May 2004.
A senior RIL executive confirmed this development, but refused to divulge further details. "There has been some research on producing ethanol from jethropa. However, the tests have not been confirmed," said a scientist who has been working with the Gujarat state government for studying crops in Kutch. Another view by the industry experts is that the sugar industry in South Gujarat is not finding enough takers for the ethanol produced.
A revamped Electronic Data Interface system and easier norms for the Accredited Clients Programme are some features likely to be introduced to reduce the transaction time and costs of exporters. Some of the measures may figure in the annual supplement to the Foreign Trade Policy, which is being released on Apr 11. ComMin officials expect the new Electronic Data Interface System to become operational by the end of this fiscal. Exporters will have to submit lesser documents.
Shell India is the second private sector petroleum company to review its expansion plans in India. The company has decided not to open any more petroleum outlets. The company has also asked some of its employees to start looking for another job. Shell has 50 petrol pumps across the country and has a licence to open 2,000 pumps.
On Tuesday, in the midst of the government's multi-pronged crackdown on inflation, the cement producers had announced a rise in prices. The export ban will augment domestic availability while the cheap imports from Pakistan will soften prices.
The buoyancy in exports, which are expected to grow 23 per cent to around $155 billion in 2007-08, does not convey the real picture.Commerce ministry data show that the sectors with higher import content like petroleum products, gems and jewellery, engineering goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, and agriculture have provided the momentum for growth in exports, which have been hit by the appreciation of the rupee and infrastructure bottlenecks.
The price surge at Jhajjar has more to do with skyrocketing land prices near the SEZ site plus a recent rumour that the Haryana government may increase the minimum price for land acquisition to more than Rs 55 lakh (Rs 5.5 million) per acre.
"The tie-up with the ASE could either be an equity partnership or a technology tie-up, or both. The regulatory bodies have to clear the proposal and we also need approval from our members first," a top ASE official said on conditions of anonymity.
The other two denotification routes are amendment of the SEZ Act through Parliament and through a presidential ordinance. The latter has been ruled out since Parliament is in session and there is nothing to stop the developers of the three SEZs from going to court if the government waits for the session to end. An amendment of the SEZ Act will not only need approval from the Commerce Ministry, but may also provoke political opposition from the Congress itself.
In one of its many arguments, North Block has maintained that direct tax exemptions may be viewed as a subsidy by importer countries, which may then impose countervailing duties on exports from Indian special economic zones. The issue is pending with the empowered group of ministers on special economic zones headed by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
ASE Capital Markets, a subsidiary of The Ahmedabad Stock Exchange, the second oldest bourse in India, is selling a part of its holding in the Bombay Stock Exchange -- the second time in less than 12 months.
Finance ministry opposed to exemptions in principle: Official.
The $100-million fund, which has the option to raise a further $200 million, will benefit small and medium enterprises engaged in defence production.
Commerce Ministry has sought clarification from Finance Ministry over calculation of profits from SEZ units.
The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act of 2005, which completed two years on February 10, 2008, has facilitated a 200 per cent rise in exports from these zones during the period, and has led to an incremental investment of Rs 70,416 crore (Rs 704.16 billion).
The European Union has drawn up an initial negative list of 416 tradeable items on which it does not intend to provide duty cuts as part of the proposed free trade agreement with India
Move aimed at reducing tax exemptions ahead of Budget 2008-09.
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